CORRESPONDENCE COURSE IN ENTOMOLOGY. 



Conducted Under the Auspices of The Agassiz Association. 



I * Lesson III. THE LARVA. 



NO FIXED RULE CAN BE GIVEN. 



Many of my pupils of the past year are successfully rearing larvae and you 

 will find it an easy and delightful occupation. No fixed rule can be laid down 

 which will apply to all species, but general instructions can be given which will 

 enable you to rear most varieties. If you wanted to know how to raise flowers 

 you would be content if told how to grow most varieties and would not be dis- 

 couraged to learn that some varieties are delicate and require special treatment. 

 Many species of larvae are comparatively hardy and will give you little worry, but 

 others require extreme care and peculiar environments. Until all kinds have been 

 reared, no entomologist would pretend that he could write this lesson in such a 

 manner that it would give complete instructions regarding the subject. It is not 

 difficult to tell you enough to serve your present purposes, but experience and 

 close observation will teach you many valuable things which will be new des- 

 coveries to even the scientists. Despite the age of the science of entomology, the 

 rearing of larvae presents opportunities for original discovery by those who are 

 beginners. 



SCIENTIFIC WORKS SILENT ON SUBJECT. 



Every entomologist who rears larvae learns from experience a large number 

 of facts which would be of importance to the beginner, but which are never 

 given publicity. They go down to the grave with the entomologist unrecorded 

 and are lost. Scientists write large and costly books describing each particular 

 molt of each particular larva reared, but tell little or nothing of how they over- 

 come the perplexing difficulties of the process of rearing. The student searches 

 their tiresome and ponderous writings in vain for instructions as to how the work 

 is accomplished and must discover the details from experience as they did. The 

 Butterflies of North America, in three volumes, by W. H. Edwards, cost some- 

 thing 'ike $150, and are invaluable to learned scientists, but they nowhere give 

 the information which was the most valuable part of the author's knowledge, 

 namely, the details of caring for the larvae. Every beginner meets with disap- 

 pointments and discouragements which would be removed had scientists pub- 

 lished the little secrets they discovered regarding the rearing of the different species. 

 I do not imagine they intentionally try to conceal information. They write books 

 for scientists,, not beginners. 



WHEN THE LARVAE HATCH. 



It is perfectly proper to speak of larvae hatching, but in reality nearly all 

 of them eat or nibble their way out of the shell, and most species, after getting 

 into the world, make their first meal off the remnants of the egg shell. If the 

 larva is that of a very small butterfly or moth it will be so very small that you 

 will probably need a magnifying glass to see it, and your first impression as you 

 endeavor to examine the eggs will be that something has destroyed them. The 

 eggs will have disappeared and you will not at first discover the caterpillars. They 

 make their first meal off their egg-shell, but will soon demand other food. Fresh 

 and tender leaves of the foodplant must be introduced promptly and when the 

 larvae have collected upon them these leaves should be transferred, with their 



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